In the early hours of Tuesday morning, police stormed the site of Occupy Oakland, reportedly using tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades on peaceful protesters and arresting dozens.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly reconvened in Oscar Grant Plaza the next day, where an overwhelming majority of protesters—nearly 1,500—voted to call for a general strike in Oakland on November 2.

In the weeks before the raid, comics journalist Dan Archer, who has covered human rights issues from human trafficking in Eastern Europe to the 2009 Honduran coup—all in the form of comic books—visited Occupy Oakland to meet the people behind the signs and find out what brought them out to sleep in the square. Here are a few of the folks he talked to.